Criminal Justice Act 1993

Prospective

10 Provision of information. E+W

(1) Section 3 of the M1 Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986 (statements relating to drug trafficking) shall be amended in accordance with subsections (2) to (4).

(2) For subsections (1) and (2), there shall be substituted—

“(1) Where the prosecutor asks the court to proceed under section 1 of this Act or applies to the court under section 4A, 5A, 5B or 5C of this Act he shall give the court, within such period as it may direct, a statement of matters which he considers relevant in connection with—

(a) determining whether the defendant has benefited from drug trafficking, or

(b) assessing the value of his proceeds of drug trafficking.

(1A) In this section such a statement is referred to as a “prosecutor’s statement”.

(1B) Where the court proceeds under section 1 of this Act without the prosecutor having asked it to do so, it may require him to give it a prosecutor’s statement, within such period as it may direct.

(1C) Where the prosecutor has given a prosecutor’s statement—

(a) he may at any time give the court a further such statement, and

(b) the court may at any time require him to give it a further such statement, within such period as it may direct.

(1D) Where any prosecutor’s statement has been given and the court is satisfied that a copy of the statement has been served on the defendant, it may require the defendant—

(a) to indicate to it, within such period as it may direct, the extent to which he accepts each allegation in the statement, and

(b) so far as he does not accept any such allegation, to give particulars of any matters on which he proposes to rely.

(1E) Where the court has given a direction under this section it may at any time vary it by giving a further direction.

(2) Where the defendant accepts to any extent any allegation in any prosecutor’s statement, the court may, for the purposes of—

(a) determining whether the defendant has benefited from drug trafficking, or

(b) assessing the value of his proceeds of drug trafficking,

treat his acceptance as conclusive of the matters to which it relates.”.

(3) In subsection (3), for “statement” there shall be substituted “ prosecutor’s statement in question ”.

(4) For subsection (5) there shall be substituted—

“(5) An allegation may be accepted, or particulars of any matter may be given, for the purposes of this section in such manner as may be prescribed by rules of court or as the court may direct.”.

(5) The following section shall be inserted in the Act of 1986, after section 3—

“3A Provision of information by defendant.

(1) This section applies where—

(a) the prosecutor has asked the court to proceed under section 1 of this Act or has applied to the court under section 5A, 5B or 5C of this Act, or

(b) no such request has been made but the court is nevertheless proceeding, or considering whether to proceed, under section 1.

(2) For the purpose of obtaining information to assist it in carrying out its functions, the court may at any time order the defendant to give it such information as may be specified in the order.

(3) An order under subsection (2) above may require all, or any specified part, of the required information to be given to the court in such manner, and before such date, as may be specified in the order.

(4) Crown Court Rules may make provision as to the maximum or minimum period that may be allowed under subsection (3) above.

(5) If the defendant fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with any order under this section, the court may draw such inference from that failure as it considers appropriate.

(6) Where the prosecutor accepts to any extent any allegation made by the defendant in giving to the court information required by an order under this section, the court may treat that acceptance as conclusive of the matters to which it relates.

(7) For the purposes of this section, an allegation may be accepted in such manner as may be prescribed by rules of court or as the court may direct.”.

(6) In section 5(3) of the Act of 1986 the words “sections 3 and 4 of” shall be omitted.

Marginal Citations

M1 1986 c. 32.